1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a protective frame for a mobile communication device and, more particularly, to a protective frame provided with an auxiliary battery and adapted to be used with a mobile phone.
2. Description of Related Art
Significant advancement in the communication technology has been made essentially thanks to, on one hand, the growth of network as well as, on the other hand, the presence of numerous and various types of revolutionary smartphones based on incessant technical breakthroughs in the mobile communication field during the last two decades. New generation smart-phones and tablet computers are not only provided with touch screens and more humanized operation interfaces, but also characterized by having multiple functions, such as on-line data uploading and downloading, game playing or audio/video information playing and so forth, all of which allow more advanced functions in the mobile communication devices, thus gradually eliminating the borderline thereof with general purpose personal computers or audio/video equipments. However, such developments in smart-phones and tablet computers lead to an increase in power consumption as compared to conventional communication-only electronic devices. Furthermore, to facilitate graphic data presentation, the screen size of new generation smart-phones and tablet computers becomes bigger and, thus, vulnerable to crashes or scratches. Consequently, users often additionally purchase protective frames or sleeves to reduce the risk of collision damage. In order to address the problems of power consumption and collision damage, efforts have been made by the manufacturers to provide a protective case equipped with an auxiliary rechargeable battery. The mobile communication devices with this design can be well-protected and further provided with an additional battery to prolong its application time.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional protective case that is provided with an auxiliary rechargeable battery. The protective case 1 is directly formed inside with a space for accommodating an auxiliary rechargeable battery 11 is directly formed inside the protective case 1, so that the auxiliary rechargeable battery 11 is directly fixed to the protective case 1. As a consequence, these two items are inseparable from each other, thus causing the following drawbacks. First, once the auxiliary rechargeable battery 11 has run out of electricity, it is inevitable to uninstall it along with the protective case from the mobile communication device for recharging. The user would be forced to choose either temporarily exposing the mobile communication device to the risk of scratches due to detachment of the protective case or refraining from recharging of the auxiliary rechargeable battery. If the protection function is chosen to be retained, the battery still need be carried along and undesirably add extra burden even it is already known that the auxiliary rechargeable battery cannot supply power. Meanwhile, if the user chooses to take off the auxiliary rechargeable battery for recharging, then the protective case need be detached as well and the original objective of protection for the mobile communication device may not be achieved.
Moreover, with such an inseparable design of case body along with the auxiliary battery, in case that the original battery of the mobile communication device itself is already well charged, the user is unable to simply select the protection feature alone and still has to carry an additional auxiliary rechargeable battery. The design would causes inconvenience for extra weight, even though the user may feel reluctant to carry the auxiliary battery. That it, although extra electric power is not required, the user is nonetheless forced to bring the auxiliary rechargeable battery, otherwise the protective case cannot be applied to the mobile communication device. However, such a situation is repugnant to user's demand for purchase, and also contrary to the initial goal of the product design. From the above-said descriptions, it can be seen that the user will inevitably face a dilemma of choice: whether or not to purchase a protective case that is provided with an auxiliary rechargeable battery. Such a design apparently fails to fulfill the actual need of users and appears to be quite unfriendly to the users.
In addition to the defects previously set forth, the conventional design eliminates the replaceability of the rechargeable battery as well. For example, if a traveler carries a high power consumptive device, such as a mobile phone or a tablet computer along a trip where power recharging may be inconvenient, it is pretty logical that a single auxiliary rechargeable battery would be insufficient for providing power to the device. Under such a condition, the user may typically recharge several auxiliary rechargeable batteries in advance for backup. However, this approach would be hindered in the case where the auxiliary rechargeable battery cannot be detached from the protective case. With this design, when the auxiliary rechargeable battery is running out of electricity, the user has to install another protective case as substitution and use another auxiliary rechargeable battery to supply electric power. This situation completely reveals the inconvenience of the design. A similar problem also exists in case of battery failure as the auxiliary rechargeable battery in the conventional design cannot be replaced. The usability of the protective case ends when the auxiliary rechargeable battery is ruined. If the auxiliary rechargeable battery simply loses its recharging capability, the conventional protective case can still be used to provide protection to the mobile communication device. However, if more serious problems like battery fluid leakage occur, the user will have to discard the battery in conjunction with the protective case, or else the mobile communication device or the user may be adversely influenced.